Qatar announces Gaza truce extension by two days
Qatar has announced that an agreement has been reached to extend the between Israel and Hamas truce by an additional two days.
Hamas announced that it had agreed with Qatar and Egypt to a two-day extension of the truce.
Israel, however, has not issued any statements regarding extending the truce which was meant to expire today.
Israel says it is open to truce extension if more captives released
Eilon Levy, Israeli government spokesperson, has said that Hamas was aware of Israel’s willingness to extend the truce in return for the release of 50 more captives held in Gaza.
Levy added that 184 Israelis are still detained in the Gaza Strip.
Top EU diplomat calls for enduring peace in Gaza
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has called for a “long-lasting” truce between Israel and Hamas.
The initial four-day truce was an “important first step” towards a “political solution”, the EU’s top diplomat said at the 8th Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) Regional Forum in Barcelona, Spain.
“Tomorrow, the suspension of operations will end. Perhaps it will last a few more days. But we have to start thinking, how do we continue the political process from today,” Borrell added.
The Spaniard condemned Hamas’ attack on Israel but stated that “the way Israel exercises its right to defense matters” while highlighting the “highly disproportionate death toll” and civilian suffering in Gaza.
Qatar, Egypt, US, EU and Spain working to extend truce deal: PA
The Palestinian Authority says Qatar, Egypt, the US, the EU and Spain are working to extend the four-day truce deal.
PA’s Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki stated the current truce could be extended for “one, two, three days” but added that no one knows exactly for how long.
Israel, Hamas raise concerns over lists of people due to be freed: Report
Israel and Palestinian group Hamas have raised concerns over the lists of Israelis and Palestinians due to be released on Monday, the final day of an agreed four-day truce, an official briefed on the matter told Reuters.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Qatari mediators were working with Israel and Hamas to resolve the issues and avoid delays.
Hamas announced it wanted to extend the truce. Israel has previously offered to agree to an additional day for each additional 10 people freed, and to release three times the number of Palestinian prisoners each time.
“There is a slight issue with today’s lists. The Qataris are working with both sides to resolve it and avoid delays,” the official briefed on the matter stated.
Israel receives list of hostages to be released on fourth day of truce
Israel has received a list of hostages expected to be released by Hamas on Monday and “discussions are underway” about it, the Israeli prime minister’s office said in a statement.
“Discussions are being held on the list that was received overnight and which is now being evaluated in Israel,” the office announced in a statement on behalf of the government coordinator for the hostages and missing persons.
Monday is the fourth, and potentially final, day of the initially negotiated truce between Hamas and Israel. As of Sunday both parties had discussed the possibility of extending the truce, but no such deal has been announced yet.
Israel’s war cabinet has discussed possibility of extending Gaza truce: Source
Israel’s war cabinet discussed the possibility of extending the temporary truce with Hamas when it met Sunday evening, an Israeli source told CNN.
The source said conditions for an extension remain unchanged from the original agreement, which means Hamas needs to release an additional 10 hostages for each additional day’s pause in the fighting.
Israel and Hamas reached a deal last week for a four-day pause in fighting and the release of at least 50 women and children held hostage in Gaza.
The deal involved hostages who were held captive by Hamas being released in exchange for a number of Palestinian women and children in Israeli jails. The truce, meanwhile, also allowed the entry of “a larger number of humanitarian convoys and relief aid”. The first release of hostages and prisoners took place on Friday, with others taking place Saturday and Sunday.
Islamic Jihad evaluating merits of extending truce
A senior leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) group stated in an interview with Al Jazeera that the proposal to extend the humanitarian truce between Israel and Hamas is still under “evaluation” by PIJ.
Daoud Shehab said PIJ is “committed to the interests of the Palestinian people more than anything else”.
He added the group is seeking to end the war and the displacement of more Palestinians. However, Shehab said PIJ will not allow Israel to impose its will on the people of Gaza.
After the truce entered into force, Ziyad Nakhalah, the secretary general of the Gaza-based Islamic Jihad resistance movement, said the Israeli regime agreed to the truce because it failed to achieve its stated goals in the Gaza war and also due to its “losses on the battlefield.”
“Had it not been for the losses on the battlefield, the Zionist regime would not have agreed to the ceasefire agreement and the exchange of prisoners,” Nakhalah added in a televised address.
He stressed the resistance would “force the Zionist enemy to exchange all the prisoners on a wider scale.”
“The rest of the enemy’s prisoners, including officers and soldiers, will not be released without the release of the rest of our prisoners, and this issue is related to the end of the war and aggression,” Nakhala asserted.
Hamas says it wants to extend 4-day truce
Hamas announced it wants to extend its four-day truce with Israel, which has entered its third day and has now seen the release of three groups of Israeli hostages from Gaza and three groups of Palestinian prisoners and detainees from Israeli jails.
In a statement released Sunday evening, Hamas said it wants “to extend the truce after the four-day period ends, through serious efforts to increase the number of those released from imprisonment as stipulated in the humanitarian ceasefire agreement”.
Earlier this weekend, Qatar, which played a central role in mediating the agreement, announced it too was hoping to extend the truce, which includes provision for an extension of one extra day for every ten hostages Hamas is ready to free.
“What we are hoping for is that the momentum that has carried from the releases … and from this agreement of four days will allow us to extend the truce beyond these four days, and therefore get into more serious discussions about the rest of the hostages,” Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Majed Al-Ansari, stated
US President Joe Biden also expressed wanting to extend the pause in fighting during remarks Sunday.
At least 120 aid trucks have entered Gaza through Rafah border Sunday: Egyptian official
At least 120 trucks carrying aid have entered Gaza on Sunday, according to the Egyptian government.
Trucks carrying fuel and cooking gas headed toward northern Gaza in coordination with the United Nations and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), Diaa Rashwan, chair of Egypt’s government press office, said in a statement.
Rashwan added the number of aid trucks will likely increase in the coming hours.
The PRCS announced in a statement that an aid convoy of 100 trucks was sent to Gaza City and northern areas of the strip, carrying food, water, relief items, first aid supplies and medicine.
Dozens of trucks that entered the crossing on Saturday were still being processed through the Israeli checkpoint as of Sunday afternoon local time, or they were still unloading on the Gaza side of the border crossing, an Egyptian border official said.
The official added that about 129,000 liters of diesel and 80,000 liters of gas went through the Rafah border crossing from the Egyptian side of the border.
Biden: Our goal is to keep this pause in fighting going beyond tomorrow
US President Joe Biden said his administration’s goal is to extend the pause in fighting in Gaza to provide for the safe release of hostages and allow more critical aid to reach civilians in the enclave.
During remarks made Sunday, Biden stated he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will remain “personally engaged to see that this deal is fully implemented and work to extend the deal, as well. For weeks I’ve been advocating the pause in the fighting for two purposes: to increase the assistance getting in to the Gaza civilians who need help, and to facilitate the release of hostages.”
Biden added that the deal struck between Israel and Hamas was “structured so that it can be extended to keep building on these results.”
“That’s our goal: to keep this pause going beyond tomorrow,” Biden continued.
Netanyahu tells Biden Israel will resume Gaza operation after truce
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday told US President Joe Biden that Israel would resume its campaign in Gaza with full force once a temporary truce comes to an end, Reuters reported.
However, Netanyahu also said he would welcome extending the truce if it facilitated the release of 10 additional hostages every day, as agreed under the original Qatari-brokered deal.
To date, there have been 117 prisoners released during the temporary truce and 54 hostages.
Biden rejected staffers’ suggestion to omit unverified beheaded babies claim: Report
Ahead of a 10 October address, described as one of the most pro-Israel speeches by a sitting president, US President Joe Biden was told by staffers he should omit a line referencing beheaded babies killed by Hamas.
The staffers warned that the information had not been verified. But Biden ignored the warning and made the unverified claim anyway.
Quickly after his speech, the White House issued a statement saying that he had seen no photos of beheaded babies, sparking outrage as to why the president would publicly spread an unverified claim.
The debacle is one of many that have taken place in the Biden administration over the past week, chronicled in a new report by the Washington Post.